Say hello to the creative shooter. Ace of Spades: Battle Builder is the first-person shooter that lets you create your battleground, destroy it, then create it again. Up to 32 players choose from seven unique classes and jump into team-based, multiplayer mayhem across an endlessly evolving battlefield, to construct, destruct and take out...

December 16, 2014

As a thank you for your dedication to Ace of Spades we would like to give you the best offer on our Block N Load: Fully Loaded Edition pre-order!

Containing immediate access to the Block N Load BETA, our instantly wearable ‘Skins For The Win’ DLC Pack, a copy of Ace of Spades: Battle Builder, and the full game when it launches – all included in the pre-order price.

If you already own Ace of Spades: Battle Builder – we have an even greater price discount for you.

You can check out the game on the Block N Load Store page and if you're interested pre-order the game at a 50% discount exclusive to you as an Ace of Spades player.

Reviews

"It’s Team Fortress with a spade, Call of Duty with a trowel, Battlefield with a powerdrill."
– IGN

“There’s just no equivalent of it in any other FPS game we’ve ever played”
–Now Gamer

“The natural successor to the title of King of Lunchbreak LAN”
– FPSGURU

About This Game

Say hello to the creative shooter. Ace of Spades: Battle Builder is the first-person shooter that lets you create your battleground, destroy it, then create it again. Up to 32 players choose from seven unique classes and jump into team-based, multiplayer mayhem across an endlessly evolving battlefield, to construct, destruct and take out the opposition.

Key Features

CONSTRUCTION, COMBAT AND CREATIVITY - Complete strategic and creative freedom is at your disposal to annihilate the enemy however you like.

MULTIPLAYER MAP CREATION - Ace of Spades: Battle Builder includes a map creator mode, which allows you to collaborate with up to 23 friends and make your very own Ace of Spades battleground! Custom tools and over 400 prefabricated structures will help you build the ultimate multiplayer maps, which you can upload and share via Steam Workshop.

CUSTOM GAME MODES - Play the way YOU want to play! Host your own match or create your own mode using the wide selection of settings available to you. From fine tuning your favourite mode & classes, to turning TDM into a Spade-only grudge match with predefined teams, as a lobby host you can:

Set your lobby to invite only, friends, or open, and also have full control over who joins with the host ‘kick’ function

Sort players into specific teams – great for clan matches, or for playing on the same team as your friends

Choose the map you want to play, official or player made

Set the size of the match, and it’s duration

Set up vanilla game modes or tweak them to suit by using an extensive set of customisable game rules

Tons Of Insane Game Modes

Team Deathmatch - The Grandaddy of them all. Kill the enemy; try not to die doing it.

Classic CTF – Back to basics, one class, one loadout, the classic rifle. You know what to do.

Capture the Flag – No FPS is complete without CTF. Protect your flag, take the enemies’.

Demolition - Demolish the enemy’s base before your own is decimated.

Diamond Mine - Dig up precious diamonds & defend the diamond carrier as they attempt to cash in their discovery at your team’s base for points.

Occupation - A game mode that pits offence against defence. The defensive team must protect their teams based in the green occupied area of the map while the attacking Blue team try to destroy the enemy position by successfully detonating bombs.

VIP – Play in 1930’s era Chicago or LA’s Alcatraz and protect your mob boss from the opposing Mafioso.

Territory Control - Claim key tactical areas of the map for your team, gain a majority territory control of the map to win, or even better go for glory and take over the entire map!

As someone who has played Ace of Spades for way too long, let me introduce the history of it to you first:

In April 2011, somebody called Ben Aksoy released a pretty decent and free FPS with voxel mechanics called Ace of Spades. This was a game that people mostly played on a randomly-generated map similar to Minecraft's randomly-generated maps (only without the trees, only grass, some rivers and more hills). The default and only gamemode at the time was Capture The Flag. All of these in combination allowed for some fun gameplay that required some strategy. Dig tunnels to capture the enemy's intel, or build a fort to defend your own intel. Every man only had a rifle, spade, grenades and some blocks (unlike most FPSes there were no newby spray-and-pray weapons).

As this game rised in popularity, a certain company called Jagex was interested in purchasing Ace of Spades. As Ben needed some money to keep updating his game, he agreed. At first, Jagex kept this a secret as to not interfere with the growing progress of the game, and its community with all of the mods/maps/gamemodes/scripts that they were producing.

And so the game kept updating, but since Jagex's buyout of the game the direction of Ace of Spades had taken a different turn from the old trench-warfare, stragetical FPS it was to a more typical, faster-paced, almost Call of Duty like FPS (SMGs and Shotguns were added, sprinting added, etc). Coupled with new maps such as Hallway and Pinpoint which abondoned some of Ace of Spades' most important features (Hallway doesn't allow you to build a tunnel underground, people usually battle in a very narrow hallway just a few blocks wide, and it's quite easy to just spawncamp if you're at the top, Pinpoint does not allow any tunnels at all, and the whole map is at the same height), and Ace of Spades became not much more than a free Call of Duty + Minecraft game.

And then without much warning, development on Ace of Spades almost halted. Only 1 new version was made that was a beta and was not approved to be an update to the main version of Ace of Spades. And then Jagex had announced that Ace of Spades was to be scrapped to make way for their version of Ace of Spades, almost a completely new game, pretty much alienating almost all of the current Ace of Spades community at that time. At first Jagex's Ace of Spades had some popularity, but as people realised how much the game just sucked in general (lack of timely updates, bugs and glitches, game-balancing issues, etc), and the fact that the game was made by Jagex itself (Jagex do not really have the best reputation of a game company) led to the downfall of the game. Although there have been a few great updates (Classic CTF update, Map Editor update, KV6 modding update), it still doesn't excuse the lack of timely updates, especially if almost all if not all of them brought along some bad features or some bugs.

The new Ace of Spades turned that CoD aspect all the way up to 11, and added some Team Fortress 2 into the mix (while Team Fortress 2 is a very good game by itself, the way it was implemented wasn't). Stuff like Rocket Launchers, Jetpacks, classes were introduced. While some fun could be had in this new game (especially the '30s Gangster game modes, and Classic CTF), it was mostly just a mess. In a typical Ace of Spades match it would not be suprising for you to be accused of "hacking" and getting votekicked for it, people griefing away every block that you build, a lot of spawncamping (but which since has been reduced with a new update that added and changed spawn positions) and just a lot of kids who play the game in general.

If you really want to buy this game, buy it on a seasonal Steam Sale (Ace of Spades usually, if not always are one of the games that is affected by the sales). Classic CTF (basically what Ace of Spades was before the SMG and Shotgun were added and before the game approached a faster-paced gameplay but with better graphics) and the '30s Gangster game modes (VIP, Territory Control) are really the only modes worth playing, maybe with the occasional normal CTF and Diamond Mine too. You should stay away from playing TDM or Zombies (these are the 2 gamemodes which suck the most, and where most of the kids are at in Ace of Spades).

Otherwise if you're not willing to pay, you can try the classic, free version of Ace of Spades at buildandshoot.com, if you like the same, crappy overplayed maps (Hallway, Pinpoint), spray and pray SMGs, playing with a lot of Brazillians who don't speak a single letter of English and people who need to use aimbots/wallhacks to play well.

TL;DR: Both the Jagex's Ace of Spades and the "classic", free version of Ace of Spades that can be found at Build & Shoot suck, but suprisingly it's the Jagex version that sucks less, because at least it has some kind of variety in gameplay.

Jagex CEO: Okay guys, our loyal Runescape members are leaving because we don't give a dang. We need money. Any suggestions?Jagex Intern: Uh, Boss? How about we buy a good game then make it trash, just like Runescape?Jagex CEO: Hmm... I like it, but it needs more... more terrible features...Jagex Intern 2: Well, how about we include spawnkilling? With Guns?Jagex CEO: I'm starting to like this idea a lot. Any other editions?Jagex Intern 3: I thought we could completely nerf strategy such as digging or building a base and just let snipers shoot you from across the map every time you spawn?Jagex CEO: And we'll keep the same price to completely trick our customers! And we'll call it the "Creative Shooter" and "Battle Builder"! We will pay reviewing companies to give us excellent reviews!Jagex Intern 4: Hey, Boss, Sir? I was thinking we should try making a good game this time... you know, make some strategy and actual... BUILDING. You know?Jagex CEO: *staring intensifies*Everybody in the Room: *intensity intensifies*Jagex Intern 4: *gets thrown out of window*Jagex CEO: Anybody else want to make an AWFUL suggestion? Good! Let's get developing! I just bought us Ace of Spades.

i used to play this game way before it come out on steam and it was a blast, then it came out on steam and i was super excited for this game, and again i had a a fun time playing this, but then it went all down hill with the updates, jagex just ruined this game for me with all the poop covered updates.

when i saw JAGEX was in on this game, i knew it was taking a dive into the ♥♥♥♥ bucket. Where do i begin, hm?

1. 1930s chicago DLC, which was only available if you bought it, and if you did, then there was almost no one playing it, and prior to the DLC, the game would crash CONSTANTLY

2. Classes. The skin of commando has changed to a RAMBO or some other guy, and changed the rocketeer to and engineer (which also took away hes long distance flying ability). Zombies are too fast and their melee speed is about 3 times as fast, so your defensless without ammo, WHICH HAPPENS ALOT.

3. Battle builder. You'd be playing on a server with about 3-4 other people, building an awesome map, and suddenly, some ♥♥♥♥ face decides "Hey, shouldn't i paint everything pink, and place rockets all around the map?!". Just no...

4. Are the classes at balance? No, because JAGEX are cleary ♥♥♥♥ing deranged. The miner/digger, whatever they decided to call him, has a shot gun, masive mining drill that insta-kills everything, dynamite and a shovel that deals alot of damage and allows him to destroy things 18 times as fast (it mines about 18 blocks at a time). The commando has a mingun, that has terrible range and two possible rocket launchers. One for long range, and another for "rocket jumps" (actually what is says). Can you rocket jump? No, because it does so much damage to you, when you land your 99.9% chance your going to die. The engineer... wait, lets not go there. And then theres the marksman, who has two possible rifles. One for shorter range and another for long range, but with less bullets and magazine size, but almost 90% of the time will instakill on bodyshot. The zombie can walk INCEDIBLY slow, but it sprints STUPIDLY fast. They have a large amount of health and with a team of about 5, can take out a team of 20 players in a matter of seconds.

I could write another 20-30 reasons why this game is another ♥♥♥♥ bucket by JAGEX, but i think ive gone on long enough

This game really isn't good. The community sucks, with mostly empty servers. The game is full of griefers and 12-year-olds (proof? the fact that they censor the chat). The actual game is so unbalanced that everybody chooses the same class, with the same weapons. You really don't BUILD anything, you just shoot other people in the head. Not tactical at all.

The game feels very unpolished, almost never does the changeable terrain system affect the course of the game, with several classes having a significant advantage over the others, lack of depth and replayability hurt this game in the long run, My experience in this game admittadly was several months ago, but after a few sessions i have never touched it again, i would not recommend buying this game unless you are really into the strange multigenre mix.

Thank you Jagex! With the last update you destroyed a Great game. Leaving Miner and Commando OP and decreased the Sniper a grotesque form, less bullet and ridiculously weak. I, as a former player get more sad in more than one month without feeling like I'm playing, because as I already said, the game is terrible, my opinion may be the only one, but it validates anyway. Do not buy.

Do not buy. A rip off of the original version (which you can still get for free and is still bloody awesome). Server browser is terrible, unless your in the US their isn't any low ping servers. Not a big player base either

I'm kind of 50/50 about it, to be honest. It's what I play for anywhere from 10 minutes to hours at random.

I'll start by naming off the PROS:

Fun game to grief play when there's nothing else you'd rather be doing.

Goes on sale occasionally for anywhere from $1-$5.

Game mechanics are somewhere between Team Fortress 2, Minecraft and Call of Duty.

Fun, childish graphics that can run on any crapass computer. (Though I suggest running on a computer with decent specs so that you can set draw distance wide open.)

Very small download.

After you start playing a better different game, you can hop on AoS for a few minutes to warm up your sniping skills.

Fairly active community that loves this game. Also, many people talking online if that's your thing.

Finally, the CONS of this game:

As much as I personally hate updates, I believe this game could use more of them. I mean, this game is very small, the maps can be made in-game and take all of 5 seconds to download on a dialup connection. What gives, Jagex? Update this game, have seasonal events, make it fun.

Can be somewhat janky if you don't have a pro MLG fiber optic connection at your house, which should built right next door to the DSLAM.

Those people that I mentioned that are on in-game chat can often be mildly autistic very spammy, quite hostile and will ragequit if you so much as land a single headshot on them.

If you land a headshot on anyone else, even after several clips worth of misses and bodyshots, you're a hacker.

You'll get rekt until you have 150+ hours of gameplay invested.

When you finally have that much invested, you're a hacker.

You WILL be griefed. Just chill out. The griefer will get bored and either leave or get vote kicked.

You WILL be votekicked even if you didn't grief or hack. Do not chill out. Demand a refund from Jagex and uninstall this game after leaving a bad and vague review.

That about wraps it up. In my opinion, only buy this game if you see it on sale, unless you are eager to play it. If you'd like to try an old, watered-down piece of ♥♥♥♥ that only people who played this game in beta still prefer a free, older version of this game, then feel free to download Openspades.

EDIT:Jagex did a Halloween 2014 event. Right on, Jagex.

EDIT:It appears that this review may have rektoffended certain people. Please refer to the comment section of this review to voice your concerns on why you disagree with this review. Perhaps I have missed something.